Should You Buy An Impact Driver

If you want the answer right away, the answer is: yes, you should buy an impact driver right now as it will make the process of driving fasteners so easy and convenient that you will curse yourself upon the fact that you didn’t buy it earlier.

Power drills you normally use are less powerful as impact drivers possess additional rotational torque that is complemented by forceful and speedy tapping that makes driving screws and fasteners into the driving plane much more effective and efficient.

However, don’t mix this ‘tapping’ feature with hammer drills that use a completely different approach in order to drive fasteners into hard materials like concrete. To get a much better understanding of how impact driver works, imagine a wrench that is perfectly set on to a bolt and as it turns the bolt it receives a periodical tap to quicken the process.

Some may think that the tapping would make impact driver to vibrate vigorously during the operation but that is not the case as the duration between taps is almost negligible. Most impact drivers deliver that “impact” or “tap” 40-60 times in a single second. However, because of those taps the tool becomes quite loud and that can irritate the people living in your neighborhood. You may also need to wear ear protection so that you don’t damage your hearing.

Although, when we talk about impact drivers, there are various varieties that are available on the market, personally I prefer impact drivers from Fein and Hitachi. Hitachi brings in the Japanese quality while Fein gives their tools a typical European, more specifically, German touch. Impact drivers from both the companies bear premium build and give exceptional performance. On the plus side, in case your impact driver gets broken or damaged, you can get your hands onto genuine Hitachi replacement parts and Fein replacement parts to fix it.

Impact drivers are great for driving long sheet rock screws into the wood and the tool is extremely useful for installing shelves, cabinets, closets, building furniture, building a deck, framing with dimensional lumber and various other projects.

Despite all the great features impact drivers can’t completely replace your drill & driver because they don’t have a clutch. On the upside, absence of clutch makes impact driver a much more ergonomic and compact power tool that you can use in cramped spaces where your traditional drill wouldn’t go. Impact drivers also come with LED lights to lighten up the dark corners so you can see clearly.